18th January 2013

It was an emotional farewell for both of us this time.  It seems to get harder every time we go away, even though, we'll be back to visit in September and hopefully have some visitors this year ;-D

Our flight from Heathrow to Bangkok was delayed by an hour or so but apart from that, we had a safe and comfortable journey.   I managed to sleep the majority of the way, while Simon wasnt quite so lucky.

To break up the journey to Koh Tao, we spent a couple of nights in Bangkok. Walking around shopping centres during the day, and down various markety style streets in the evening looking for bargains...and having a couple of Singha beers at the side of the road with these makeshift Volkswagen Van bars.... very cool..

It was time to leave Bangkok, and flying down to Samui, we jumped onto the ferry and arrived on Koh Tao later that afternoon.

Moving back into our apartment took a couple of hours, and then it was straight out to attend a leaving party for a friend of ours... I think we got back around midnight.

Waking the next day, we got straight on our mission to look around for another house/apartment and also places for Fiona,Chris and co to stay if they come over in July. We spent pretty much the whole day doing that, with not much success as the island is pretty full at the mo... we are going to try again in a few days.

That night, it was out again to attend a snorkel test that Jen needed to attend as one of her proteges was participating. I think I lasted till 11pm, and asked Jen if we could go home and have a cup of tea (old git I am!)...

Then yesterday, we had our first dive... going to Junkyard with Nathan and his eco students and transplanting some coral.. it was strange after 6 weeks out of the water.. and a great feeling to get back into it.. Lots of coral moved and transplanted, even with a fair amount of surge...

Jenny took photos of her 2 nieces names on the windmill.. Chloe & Iona!

After our dive, we went to Safety stop to have a game of Settlers of Catan with Tina and Carsten before going home to cook dinner, watch a movie, and cuddle up...


xx

SD